Ouray Ice Festival

The 2008 Ouray Ice Festival. Another fun time out ice climbing and hanging with friends. I arrived to Ouray with my friends Scott Flower, Tara Garson from OZ, a few other friends from Colorado Springs and my brother Grant. Grant's never been ice climbing but he's the one who got me into rock climbing when I was 14 yrs old so it was good to get out with him again and let him have a go at this ice stuff. We woke up in the Springs to 6 inches of fresh snow and it was still coming down hard. We were still keen on driving down, the roads were absolute shit. We stopped in Gunnison and for the first time in 2 years I ate McDonalds. Don't ask why we ate there I still don't know the chicken was not good. It took us a good 2 hours longer than normal but we all made it down to Ouray safely. Woke up in Ouray to it dumping more snow. I've never seen this much snow in Ouray, it must have been some sort of record. Great for skiing, not so good for ice climbing especially when a lot of the climbing we wanted to do was up the pass which was closed for 5 days.

Getting out in the box canyon is always good fun. It's a great place to warm up and get in the swing of things before getting on big routes and scaring yourself high above your last piece of protection. I climbed for two days with my brother and friends and of course I caught the fl on day 3 so I was pretty worthless through the festival. So after 3 days of lying in bed and doing absolutely nothing I started feeling better. I didn't get a chance to watch the competition because I woke up feeling great that morning and had to get out and climb.

Now the crowds have left, the snow stopped falling, and the sun is out. It's time to get out and climb again. Lower photos by Winn Jewett

-chris